Asgore approached almost without any sound which was quite the feat given the king's dimensions. Chara pushed further away the book that they previously had set aside in case the monster might had been interested in it, Asgore did not pay attention to it and saw down next to them with an apprehensive look in his eyes.

"Chara." The monarch began, uncertain on how to bring up the topic properly. "The monthly address is coming soon." He decided to let his child understand by themself what he was trying to imply rather than to state it directly. It would feel more like mentioning a unaddressed problem this way and less like going against their wishes.

The human child immediatly knew where this was going. Of course he would do that.

"Are you here to talk about what to do regarding Frisk ?" They wondered, although they were practically already certain the answer would be yes.

Asgore nodded slowly. Chara let out a sigh.

"Listen, i know we need to watch out for them but asserting them to monsterkind as a menace would give them bad reputation throughout the underground for years to come. I simply could not bring myself to condemn a child like them to this fate not having seen physical evidence of their wrongdoings." He put the blame for this questioning on himself and his own sense of fairness. "Could there be an alternative solution to make sure everyone would stay safe without me having to bear this weight ?" He left them with an open ended question after deviating the subject away from Frisk themself. As the leader of monsterkind, Asgore was very competent with words.

The human took some time to reflect upon it. What counted to them was that everybody would stay safe. And truth to be told, there was practically no doubt in their mind anymore that Frisk wasn't planning on killing anyone in the near future. They did however continue to pose a threat in the long term. The very fact that they were a human with time travel powers made them one regardless of who they were or what they wanted.

That said, Chara guessed that it didn't necessarily matter that much why the monsters would have to weary of them as long as they actually were. If Asgore was unable to shoulder wording things one way, they guessed that they could be alright with another as long as the goal was reached.

"I guess... Depends what alternative would suit you better father." Chara responded.

Asgore was pleasantly surprised by Chara's willingness to cooperate. Given his child's temperament and their pronounced misanthropy, he had feared his request might be met with a plain refusal. A small smile passed birefly on his face.

"How about something like explaining that they are troubled or unstable due to their fall and the associated shock os discovering monsterkind ?" The king proposed.

He anxiously waited while Chara stayed silent, considering the option.

"No." They concluded.

"No ?" Asgore repeated.

"if this is given as the sole reason then monsters will only stay weary for a short time before assuming that they must have by now gotten over it. This measure's effects would only last a couple weeks at most." Chara criticised the idea. It would work very well for short term, but like they had thought earlier, the issues was a long term one.

The king understood his child's point, but how could be invite monsters to be weary of Frisk on the long term in a way that would not paint them in a bad light ?

Chara knew what Asgore wanted out of this. And frankly they didn't need the other monsters to dislike Frisk, they only needed to be aware that they could potentially be dangerous. There could surely be a way to arrange this in a way that would fit them both.

The boss monster noticed his human child glance away from a few moments before staring back at him.

"As long as they are ready to defend themselves if the human attempts anything, i do not care so much about how they see Frisk. If what suits you would be to make protecting the monsters coincide with not painting Frisk as naturally malevolent then perhaps presenting the issue as something that they could be rather than something they are would be better suited." Chara proposed.

"I believe asserting Frisk as unstable was a good lead, but not to associate this instability with the shock of their fall." Chara continued. "Leaving them to see that as a side of Frisk to stay weary of instead would dissuade them of ignoring the danger without tainting Frisk's reputation." They proposed instead. And besides, Frisk being mentally unstable was not really a lie. This kid's behavior made no sense and given the power they held, their mental sanity could only deteriorate over time anyway. This kind of ability cannot be good for anyone to have.

The king silently thought about it before concluding that this seemed like a pretty reasonable settlement. He was honestly quite proud of Chara for being so mature during this talk which he had expected to be a considerably more difficult and emotional one than it had turned out to be.

Maybe Chara was growing up. The king thought as he thanked them for their consideration and left the room to tell Toriel about Chara's counter proposition.

When Asgore did so, Chara felt strangely... good ? Like they had done something right. but they hadn't really done anything much did they ? What made them feel that way ?

It mattered little, they decided.

It had been a few days since the first human had attempted to spy on Frisk to learn more about them. This was something that they had given up fairly quickly after the first day however when it became clear that it would yield little results.

Since then, the two kids have continued to have very little interactions. Chara had avoided pointless discussions for the most part as spending their time talking to a human was not very high in their list of priorities to say the least. Given how insistent the kid had initially been towards talking to them despite what Chara had done to them, they were surprised that Frisk did not try to have much contact with them either.

The two of them had sort of developed an unspoken agreement where they just... sort of let each other be whilst avoiding unnecessary contact ? Chara because they didn't want contact, Frisk because they thought it'd be better to respect Chara's wishes and let them get used to the fact that they were gonna be here for quite a while over time than by trying to force a friendship.

So far, it had worked out pretty well for the two of them, the only ones who did not like it were the rest of the Dreemurrs, who were quite worried of seeing the two humans that lived with them acting as if they barely acknowledged each other's existence. They eventually had a little talk with Frisk where they explained their reason which Toriel and Asgore understood.

Asriel was the real loser here, as both children had been acting constantly worried and cold. He wished he could play wit his best friends as usual but they simply weren't often in the mood these days, as for Frisk, talking to them much would not be appreciated by Chara. The prince wished that this situation would sort itself out one way or another. They couldn't keep this up forever, right ?

That morning, Chara was woken up by their brother's loud movements as he got out of bed. This was something that often annoyed Chara. When they woke up first, they always did their best to try and not wake up the others, but this favor was never returned to them by their brother.

But for today, they could excuse it. They both did after all have a particular reason to be up early this time. Or at the very least, to be up before Asgore was. Which wasn't very difficult considering the king had the tendency to stay in bed for a long time recently.

Asriel approached their bed to try and wake them up, but Chara turned their head to signal to him that he had already done that.

After mouthing a very brief apology, the prince snuck out of their room on tiptoes following by their sibling not far behind. The kids carefully made their way to the kitchen whilst making sure not to risk alerting anyone.

On the table, Asriel picked up a note that had been left for them by Toriel.

Brown sugar, milk, eggs, cups of butter, vanilla, etc... The ingredient for one of Toriel's famous pies. Complete with a full list of instructions regarding the steps as to how to bake said pie. Toriel had been very happy to hear about her children's idea to make Asgore a pie around a week ago. It was kept secret from the king, but Toriel offered them her approval and promise of help via giving them the recipe. That way the children could say they made it all themselves and be telling the truth !

After everything that happened in the last fews days, Asriel was quite happy to be able to partake in such an activity with Chara. And it appeared that they too were enjoying it quite a lot. Cooking was not really something neither of them had any kind of experience with before, which did make it seem much more fun.

As Chara was the more agile of the pair, the two eventually got into a rhythm where Asriel would read out the steps to Chara whilst also bringing them some of the ingredients when he had some time and Chara was the one actually putting the ingredients in and mixing them. In exchange for Chara getting the fun part on that regard, Asriel got to be the one giving its form to the crust and would also get to have full control over the process heating up the pie. Which only made sense, after all Chara was not the one that had fire magic here. It was a fairer way to share the tasks this way they had decided.

Chara was someone who cared a lot about efficiency, hence their entire concentration was required in order for them to do things like spread out everything evenly or stirring just the right amount. That being said, it also made it more difficult to focus on what Asriel said too.

"What's next ?" Chara wondered whilst stirring the mix.

"Butter." Asriel responded after double checking the recipe.

"Two cups." The prince added, realising he hadn't actually specified how much of it they needed.

Just after asking their previous question, Chara had noticed that the mixture had one bubble of air around which it was not homogeneous with the rest in terms of color. This quickly annoyed them and the human intensified their efforts to make sure it was gone before they progressed any further. It took almost a full minute of aggressive stirring to get rid of it. Once it was gone, Chara blanked out for a moment trying to remember what Asriel has said when they were barely listening to him.

It was something about... Hum... What was it again ? Butter ? Yes, it was definitly butter. But it wasn't just that, he had said there was something else too... It was butter and... ? Oh, yes, something about cups, wasn't it ? Butter and cups...

Oh, right, buttercups, they had some of those.

When Frisk opened their eyes and got up so that they could knock on the door in order to be let out of their room, it never took Toriel more than a couple minutes to open the door for them.

Today, well, Frisk didn't really have anything to keep track of time but they were pretty sure it must have been close to 10 minutes now. At the very least 5.

They guessed Toriel might have been busy at the moment and didn't hear them. They had hoped that Asgore or Asriel would have opened their door if Toriel wasn't here, but so far they had no luck. It was okay, Frisk thought. They could be a bit patient for now. Everyone had their own problems, having to stay here a few more minutes was not a very big deal, these people were already giving Frisk a place to stay, they couldn't really complain...

One thing that did strike them as odd was the silence. Usually at that time the house was quite noisy Usually due to Asriel and sometimes Chara playing around, or at the very least, Toriel's chair would produce little squeaks at regular intervals when she was using it.

But today, silence. Frisk didn't hear anything at all.

After a bit more time, they decided to try knocking again a bit louder this time. Shortly after, Toriel did hear them and open the door for them, but she was not smiling like usual. The monster queen looked worried and signed them not to make too much noise while following her.

"is something wrong ?" They eventually asked.

Toriel sighed before answering them. "Asgore has gotten sick. Do not worry about it too much, my child. This does not concern you." Her tone was quite cold compared to usual and even a bit intimidating. Frisk did not interrogate her further and quietly went to the right, trying to be noisy as to not disturb Asgore who they assumed Toriel was going to check on in the meantime.

When they got to the living room, they saw Asriel sitting on a chair looking pretty miserable and Chara on the ground near the fire with their head tilted downwards. They were unable to see their face as it was blocked from their view by the shadows. They couldn't tell what the older human was thinking.

"Asriel ?" Frisk wondered, giving Chara another quick look to see wether they'd react to hearing their voice. "I heard Asgore got sick, what happened ?" They wondered. Was sickness for monsters different than it was for humans ? Was it more dangerous ? It seemed like the entire household was down today. Was Asgore in real danger ?

"We tried to make butterscotch pie for dad." The prince began. "The recipe asked for cups of butter but we accidentally put in buttercups instead." He explained.

Oh... Did... they get Asgore sick trying to make him a pie ?

When he noticed the shift in Frisk's expression that confirmed they had understood what Asriel was implying, the prince's expression turned even sadder and tears began forming around his eyes. It seems that he was taking this incident very seriously. Surely they should all understand this must have been an accident, right ?

"We made mom really upset." He added. Frisk could easily imagine that Toriel would not be pleased by this. She had likely given them a big lecture as if the pain of knowing they had done this to their father hadn't already been enough punishment. Frisk felt bad for the king as well, he had been so nice to them when they met...

And Chara ? They wondered, turning around to see the other child still sitting and turning their back to Frisk. How did they feel ? Considering that they had been afraid that Frisk would hurt Asgore, now...

The first fallen human felt their chin twitch. It was morbidly funny in a way. They were so useless, so weak. They hated feeling weak. All they had wanted was to protect them from Frisk. But not only had Frisk not even tried hurting the Dreemurrs, but now Chara had just been the one who poisoned their own father. It was their fault that he was suffering.

It was so ridiculous. They were doing so much to defend the monsters for the other human, but they couldn't even defend the monsters from themself. They had done more harm to them than Frisk ever did...

They let out a little giggle at the thought of how silly this was. Asgore was in pain because of them. Not of Frisk, of them. They were the one who had put in these buttercups.

They laugh... And keep laughing.

Its SO funny !

They can't stop.

Tears run down their face...

In the meantime, Asriel and Frisk both stare at them blankly from behind. Seeing them twitching and laughing, like a strange way of laughing it off.

Frisk felt really bad about this entire ordeal. They felt bad for Asgore, they felt bad for Asriel, they also felt bad for Chara. On top of this, they were now wondering if they could have done something had they woken up earlier today.

Everything that happened this morning had just been plain bad. Everyone was sad or hurt. It would have been better if it didn't happen.

Didn't happen...

They perked up. Right ! They could still do this, couldn't they ? It would surely be better off for everyone if they did.

They hadn't SAVED since yesterday not long before sleeping. They could just undo all of this as easily as that. And Chara would remember this, so it wouldn't happen a second time, would it ?

...It would be better for everyone that way.

Frisk just hoped they weren't making a mistake.

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